


Knockturn Alley

by Chicory



Series: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chapter Coda, Gen, Knockturn Alley, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26291368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicory/pseuds/Chicory
Summary: A coda to chapter four: At Flourish and Blotts.
Series: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902802
Kudos: 3





	Knockturn Alley

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this is kind of meh. It didn't help that I had to rewrite the last three paragraphs because of course I accidentally deleted them. But I guess practice makes perfect eventually?

When father told him they were going to make a detour, Draco wasn't pleased. He should've known something was up; it was unusual of Lucius to invite him along to Diagon Alley and even promise he'd buy him a present. Draco suspected father had told him that just to shut him up about the unfair injustice that was his school life, but he never turned down presents. Not that he was looking forward to the racing broom father had suggested that much, but he hadn't dared to say anything about it or else he'd get no present at all.

Quidditch had lost a lot of its sheen last year when not only had all of Draco's brilliant plans been ruined but _Potter_ had got everything he'd wanted instead. He'd been going to smuggle a racing broom to the school; Potter had got the best broom in the market as special permission from the senile nepotist himself. He'd been going to impress everyone with his flying; Potter had done that instead at Draco's expense. He'd been going to play for Slytherin as the first first-year Seeker; Potter had become the youngest Seeker in a century and had all the dullards at school fawn over him.

Potter wasn't even that _good_. It was all that stupid scar's fault; Draco suspected it had confounding properties.

He was mulling over this possibility as father took them to Knockturn Alley. The streets were dark, and narrow, and squalid. The unkempt witches and wizards loitering in the doorways and alleyways gave Draco vile looks as they walked past. Draco, being the impeccably bred child he was, sneered right back. Mother would've been most displeased if she knew where father had taken him.

It wasn't until they reached the shop father wanted to visit that Draco's mood improved. The exterior was underwhelmingly unimpressive -- the weathered _Borgin_ _and Burkes_ sign over the dusty front window -- but the inside was _wicked_.

Father told him not to touch anything as if he wasn't already _twelve_ and hence no longer a _child_. While he conversed with the proprietor, a greasy-looking man in worn robes, Draco went around the cramped shop looking at the oddments of human bones, poison vials, glass eyes, and cursed artefacts. When he noticed a withered hand, said to give light only to its holder, he asked if father could buy it, hoping to have it instead of the racing broom. He could play so _many_ pranks with it.

That backfired, though, because not only father declined, he also brought up Draco's recent failures in school. He'd got full marks on his exams; it wasn't _his_ fault the professors had given that Hermione Granger extra points. He tried to bring it up but protesting never did any good with father so Draco shut up, unhappy and abashed. He cheered himself up reading the cards on the cursed artefacts and smirked at how many foolish Muggles they'd claimed.

He was about to peek in a massive, black cabinet in the corner when father abruptly announced he was done.

The day certainly didn't get any better after that. In the broom shop, Draco gave the newest Comet a longing look but then his mouth thinned when he remembered Weasley's stupid words about it. As if he could afford even a twig from it, never mind from Potter's Nimbus. Draco'd had that broom since he'd been six-years-old, but then his expression hardened and he whipped around to have a look at the Nimbuses instead.

In the bookshop, he just had to bump into none other than Potter and his horde of Weasleys. Potter made a spectacle of himself with the glitzy buffoon who then proclaimed he'd be teaching at Hogwarts as if the place didn't suffer from enough incompetent teachers already. And to top the whole miserable day off, the Weasley Patriarch charged at father like an enraged erumpent and they started brawling like Muggles of all things, knocking Draco back into a bookshelf.

Really, sometimes Draco considered if he hadn't been born under a malevolent cloud.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, if anyone did :)


End file.
